Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Here I am on the last day of 2014, in order to write down a few stats for this year.During this year we did 36 radio shows in total, on which we played songs from 290 different bands. As for the songs, they were 725. I believe we covered a wide variety of music genres, as we played songs from Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, Classic Rock, Psychedelia, Folk Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Neo Prog etc.Further than that, during the year we were happy and honored to have among our listeners members from many bands, with whom we chated, had fun, learn about their plans etc. A few names that I can recall now are:Sonja Kristina (Curved Air), Anton Roolaart, Stephan Desbienes (The D Project), Stuart Nicholson (Galahad), Jargon/Stellios Pavlou/George Kyriakidis (Verbal Delirium), and both members from Salander. (Dave Smith & Dave Curnow). As for the bands we played throughout the year, these are the 15 bands or artists we played the most:1.CURVED AIR 2.CAMEL 3.GENESIS 4.PINK FLOYD 5.DAVID BOWIE 6.RUSH 7.JETHRO TULL 8.ELOY 9.GALAHAD 10.PORCUPINE TREE 11.PROCOL HARUM 12.CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX 113.THE D PROJECT 14.BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST 15.MARILLION. I want to thank all of you who supported our show during this year. Your love and support is the most important thing, and it's giving us strengh to carry on. We always try to improve our show in order to make it more interesting and enjoyable. I also want to thank all those musicians I mentioned above who joined our show, and some of them more than once.Prog & Roll will be with you again on the first Sunday of 2015 at 20.00 UK time.Till then, take care and Happy New Year!

Monday, December 29, 2014

Hello all!
Last night we had the last show of 2014, and here I am today in order to inform you about it.
We had a special show prepared for last night, as I wrote here a few days ago, including a few guest musicians on the chatbox. During the week I received some confirmations from the artists, so I knew beforehand who will log in during the show in order to listen and chat with our listeners.So the musicians who logged in last night were: 3 members from the Greek band 'Verbal Delirium' plus their manager who logged in for a while, Curved Air's singer and former member Sonja Kristina, and from Quebeq Canada, Stephane Desbienes who is the mastermind behind 'The D Project'.Further than that, on last night's show we broke 3 records: 1. For the first time we had so many musicians gathered in one show. 2. Lately we have people listening from many different countries and places, but this time we had one listener who logged in from the edge of the world (literally). One person in our audience was working on a ship and he was listening from Antarctica!!! 3. Last night we had the youngest person ever listened to our show, who was Florian Decros from France. His age? Just 13 years old! The really impressive thing was not only his age, but most importantly the fact that he knew the songs and albums we were playing, and above all, he was the winner in our music contest as well!Congratulations Florian once more!
The whole show lasted for almost 2.5 hours, and here you can see the full playlist:

I want to thank all those who logged in last night and listened to Prog & Roll, hoping you had some nice time. A very special thanks to Chrisitne Maragou (the manager of Verbal Delirium), Stellios Pavlou (the drummer of VD), Jargon (singer and keyboard player of VD), George Kyriakidis (guitar player of VD) Sonja Kristina (singer of Curved Air) and Stephan Desbienes (The D Project). We were very glad and honored to have you in the chatbox, and we hope to see you again in the future.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

I'm writing this post in order to inform you about this Sunday's (28/12) Prog & Roll radio show.As the title of the post implies it will be the last show for 2014, and that's why we thought to organize something special for our faithful (and not) listeners.In a few words here's what's gonna happen more or less:
First of all, the show will be expanded for almost half hour, and it will last for about 2.5 hours.Further than that, the playlist will be Prog & Roll's best of 2014, which means it will include the bands we played mostly during the year. That happened because they are our favorite ones, or our audience's favorite ones, or both in many occasions. And to make it a little bit more interesting, we invited some members from those bands to listen to the show, and at the same time to participate in the chatbox as well. We received many positive answers, which means that all those who will join our show on Sunday night will be able to listen to some really great songs, and at thee same time to chat with some musicians from those bands as well.
The only thing that is left now is to wait for the time that the show will start.
To be honest I'm really impatient, because I believe it will be a really great show! In case you want to log in to listen and/or participate in the chatbox, here's the link for you:www.justincaseradio.com Prog & Roll starts at 20.00 (UK time), and the broadcast is in English & Greek.
I hope to "see you" there!
Thank you for reading this...

Friday, December 26, 2014

Verbal Delirium is one of the most talented and promising bands in Greece right now in my opininon. With 2 albums released so far, and the third one on the way, they are slowly but steady
finding their way into the music busines.Their sound is rather personal and modern, and the few influences one can find in their sound doesn't bother at all.
A few days ago they gave a concert in Athens, and I went to see them for second time, so I knew what to expect more or less. But once more they performed really good, and I had a very good time. My opinion is that because Verbal Delirium participated in many music festivals in Europe, they have become more "mature" and they have an "air" of self-confidence when they are on stage. And that is very important!

They played for almost 2 hours, and the setlist was based exclusively on their own songs. At the end of their concerts they always have one encore, including only one song, which is a cover version. The first time I saw them live a few months ago, they played 'Starless' by King Crimson as encore. (It was an excellent cover version, although the song itself it's preety tough). Knowing that, I was very curious to see what they prepared for this show. But I wasn't prepared for what was going to come. This time they chose to play 'The Knife' by Genesis, and their perfomance was of the highest standards! Most of the audience knew the song by heart, so they were singing along. It was an excellent closing in a really good concert!
Congratulations guys, see you again on your next show.
Here you can see the full setlist, which is a photo I from the original copy I took as a souvenir ;)

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Athough the sad news for the death of Joe Cocker spread out like a wild fire, I felt that I should write a post for this really great performer.
I'm very sad because Joe Cocker was one of my most favorite musicians, since my teenage years.According to his manager, Joe Cocker died from lung cancer od the 22nd of December 2014 in Crawford Colorado.
In his long career, he released over 20 studio albums, and he recorded numberless cover versions. (Almost all of them were succesfull).
There are not many things to say for this great singer and performer really, except that he was one of rock music's brightest stars.
We will always be thankful you for the great music you left behind as your heritage Mr. Cocker!
You will always be remembered, because you will always live in our hearts.
R.I.P Joe Cocker.
I'm adding 3 songs from my channel in Youtube for you ti listen to.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

I'm writing this in order to inform you that due to our very busy schedule, we have to cancel tomorrow's Prog & Roll.
Our next show will take place on December 28, and it will be the last show of the year.
Because of that, we will prepare something really special.
But more on that later.
Have a great weekend all!
Thank you.

Friday, December 19, 2014

On the Saturday before Christmas (20/12/20140 'Just in Case Prog Radio' in organising a special Rock night at the bar 'Κομιξ" with 2 Dj's on the decks.The owner and producer of 'Just in Case Radio' Dimitris 'All Around' will play music with MP3's, and myself with vinyl LP's and singles.
We will play music from the '60's till nowadays, and it will be a great night for sure!
All of you who are living in Athens, you are welcome to come, listen to the music, and meet with the radio station's producers.
You can find the info you need on the poster.
Hope to see you there.
Thank you!

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Just a few days before Christmas Verbal Delirium will give a live performance at 'Rythmos' stage in Athens.
Having seen them live before, I want to say that in case you are living in Athens you should definitely go and see them! They are one of the most talented Greek bands now, and they are superb on stage!
I will be there for sure!
You can find the info you might need on the poster.
See you there! :-)
P.S: I added two videos in order to listen in case you are not familiar with their music.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Crippled Black Phoenix has been to Greece many times in the last years in order to play live, but this was the first time I went to see them. Reading reviews from their previous appearances I knew more or less what to expect, so I was prepared let's say.
I went in the concert area with a small delay, so I wasn't able to see the Greek support band 'Afformance' from the start. From the few songs I was able to see , I believe they are good. They play a classic Post-Rock, with a heavy and tight sound. Everybody seemed to enjoy their music, but let's face it, all of us were waiting for the next band to come on the stage. And that happened after a while.
The stage seemed really small for Crippled Black Phoenix, as the band were 7 people, and filled the stage completely with their organs. The band had 3 guitars, bass, drums, and 2 keyboard players.
They started with their classic 'opening' song 'Rise up and fight' and the people looked like they are "warming up" for what was about to follow. After the first song, Justin Reaves who is the mastermind behind the band, informed us that a few days before the concert 2 of the band's members quit. (The bass and the guitar player). So he had two options: or to cancel the concerts, or to find two new members to replace them. He chose the second option, because he didn't want to cancel, but the problem was that these 2 new members didn't have the time to learn all the songs (especially the more complicated ones). That's why their show this time would be smaller in length. Reading reviews from their older concerts I knew that they usually play 2.5 hours at least. Well, this time they didn't. The whole concert lasted for almost 2 hours, which is not bad at all.
During the first 4-5 songs it was obvious that they were trying to "find their steps", especially the 2 new members, but after a while everything went fine. The seventh song in the setlist was 'Of a Lifetime' on which the keyboard player Daisy Chapman took over the vocals, and that was the point where the band started to play really well. After that, everything was great! The sound became better, the band gained their confidence back, and they gave a really good show.
They played 13 songs in total, having only one song as encore, which was another cover version.
My opinion is that with all the problems the band was facing they performed preety well. They tried to do the best they could in order to please their audience. Maybe their performance didn't reach the standards of their previous ones, but I don't think it was bad. I enjoyed it at least! And when they will visit Athens again, I will be there! :-)Here you can check the concert's playlist:Rise up and fightBlack light generatorJonestown MartinNO!Born in a hurricaneSong for the lovedOf a lifetimeFantastic justiceTroublemaker444We forgotten who we areBurnt ReynoldsEncore:Let the day begin
In the following video you can see what happened at the end of the concert in the song Burnt Reynolds, with the crowd singing along.
Thank you for reading! :-)

Monday, December 15, 2014

The last broadcast before Christmas.
Hello all!Last night we had one more Prog & Roll radio show, which as the title implies was the last one before Christmas. We have a really very busy time lately, and that's why we decided to cancel next Sunday's boadcast. We will have one more show on the 28th of December which will be the last for 2014, so we will try to make it a really good one!
As for last night, I believe it was a good show! I'm very happy to say that for the first time we had listeners from so many different countries. And I count only those who were involved more or less in the chatbox, because there were many more listening, but I don't know from where.So, we had people listening from Greece, Italy, Turkey, Northern Ireland, England, France and Russia. (I hope I didn't forget anything). This fact made us really happy as you can understand, because it shows that all the hard work and the efforts we are putting on that show are appreciated.
Now let's go to the music. We had a rather "light" playlist prepared, including many different styles of music as usual, and we tried to have a balance between the famous and the not so famous songs. I believe the result was satisfying, and everybody seemed to enjoy it.
At the end of the show we played the 'epic' song as usual, during which we had the voting for the 'encore' song. This time the voting was hard, because we put 3 very good songs in the competition.The 3 songs were: Led Zeppelin: The Rover, Marillion: Forgotten sons and Rush: Tom Sawyer. The winning song was 'Tom Sawyer' but only with one vote difference from Led Zeppelin.Here you can take a look at the whole playlist: MASTERMIND:
With dignity & grace / FAIR TO MIDLAND: The walls of Jericho / SERJ
TANKIAN: Sky is over / AUDIOSLAVE: Like a stone / THE TEA PARTY: The river /
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: The river / DAVID GILMOUR: Love on the air / MIKE OLDFIELD:
Moonlight shadow / MONIKA: Over the hill / JEFF BUCKLEY: Grace / DAVID BOWIE:
Starman / MOSTLY AUTUMN: Half the mountain / MIDLAKE: Small mountain / SHADOW
GALLERY: Christmas day / MAGIC PIE: Illusion & reality (part. 4) / VERBAL
DELIRIUM: Erased / ENGLAND: Yellow / CARAVAN: Hello hello / JANE: Daytime. Epic song: ELOY: Poseidon’s creation Encore song: RUSH: Tom Sawyer. I want to say a very big 'thank you' to all of you who are supporting our show by listening and/or participating on the chatbox. The fact that so many people are logging in every Sunday night to listen and chat with us means a lot. Have a Merry Christmas everybody, and we will be together with you on the 28th of December for the last Prog & Roll of 2014.Thank you! :-)

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Good morning all!
Another Saturday morning came, and here I am in order to write down my weekly Top-5 songlist as usual.
During this week I listened to lots of music, not only for pleasure, but also for a special DJ set I'm preparing for the next weekend. (Not to mention the making of the playlist for tomorrow's Prog & Roll).
Once more it was difficult for me to chose only 5 songs, but I tried to do the best I could.
So, without further ado, here's my weekly Top-5 songs:RAINBOW: Stargazer (Rising - 1976)DAVID BOWIE: Starman (Ziggy Stardust - 1972)THE MOODY BLUES: I'm just a singer (in a Rock n Roll band) (Seventh Sojourn - 1972)CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX: Burnt Reynolds (200 tons of bad luck - 2009)SHADOW GALLERY: Christmas time (Tyrany - 1998)
I will conclude this post as usual, by adding two videos with songs from my list in order to listen to if you want to.Enjoy the music, and have a nice weekend!Thank you for reading. :-)

Friday, December 12, 2014

Between the end of the first season of 'House of Cards' and the second one, I watched some really good series. This fact made me not to be so eager to watch this second season, that's why I delayed a lot to sit down and watch it.
But when I finally did, I was absorbed by it once more! In the first season Kevin Spacey gave one of the best performances of his career as Congresman Frank Underwood. Well, here he takes the role a bit further. (If that is even possible).
Next to him, Robin Wright gives an excellent performance in the role of his wife Claire. These two are the main characters of the series, and the plot is "built" on their shoulders. When I was watching the series, I thought of them as the "evil couple" more than a few times, which is actually very close to the truth. They are a couple that will not stop at nothing until they get what they want.
As I mentioned in my review for the first season (which you can read here if you want: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2014/01/tv-series-house-of-cards-2013-season-1.html) there are some side stories going on, which add nothing to the main story, and they only delay the plot and take up time in the episodes. Well, that happens in the season 2 as well. To be honest I'm not sure which season is better, but I think I will say the first one by a small margin.
Everything that you see in the first season is here too, including of course the great idea of Kevin Spacey (only) every now and then turning his face to the camera and speaking his thoughts directly to you. This was somethig that for some reason the critics dissaproved of. It caused much speculation over the idea of pursuing this style or giving it up entirely. The answer comes at the end of the 1st episode of the 2nd season, and it was ecxellent given! (I don't want to describe what is going on and spoil the surprise).
All of you who enjoyed Tv series like for example 'Breaking Bad' or 'Broadwalk Empire' I believe you will enjoy this one as well. I strongly recommend it, if not for some other reason, than only to watch Kevin Spacey's performance in it.My rating for the second season would be: 8 out of 10. (IMDB's rating is: 9.1 out of 10)
On the following video you can watch a trailer for season 2.
Thank you for reading.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Last night's Prog & Roll was one of the best we had since sometime now I believe.
We had a very active chatbox with many peole participating, and many more who were just listening. We had a lot of fun, and the 2+ hours passed really fast. Further than that, we had a rather unpredictable finale, which was something we enjoyed a lot.
As I have mentioned a couple of times before, one of the things I really enjoy is to have an active audience, and you will understand now why.
Starting from last night we decided to add something new in the show. Lately we used to play an extra song after the official end of our show, because some people were asking for it. So we named it as "encore". And starting from yesterday we decided to play a little "game" with our listeners. So, during the last song we wrote 3 songs in the chatbox, and asked them to vote for one of them. The song with the highest amount of votes would be the one we were going to play as "encore".The 3 songs were Supertramp's Crime of the century, The four horsemen by Aphrodite's Child, and Astronomy by Blue Oyster Cult. The people started to vote, and at a point there was a tie, when suddenly someone wrote in the chatbox: Rainbow - Stargazer. Suddenly almost everybody started asking for this song. So I searched through my music library, found it, and added it exactly the moment the previous song was ending. You can't imagine what happened when Stargazer started! That was really great! We were laughing with the people's comments and reactions, and as it seemes everybody really liked this last-minute change. But because we had already the voting going on, we decided to play one more song which was voted by them, and it was Crime of the century by Supertramp.
Here you can take a look at the playlist:

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Hello all!
All those are following or checking from time to time my blog, know already that on every Saturday I'm posting here my Top-5 songlist named as "GFreedom's Juke Box'".
Truth is that I had an extremenly busy week, therefore I didn't have so much time to deal with music like other weeks. But I did made a Top-5 list, which you can see it here:NIGHTSTALKER: Children of the sun (Dead Rock Commandos - 2012) CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX: Fantastic Justice (I Vigilante - 2010)MADRUGADA: What's on your mind? (Madrugada - 2008)URIAH HEEP: The Magician's Birthday (The Magician's Birthday - 1972)BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: The Poet / After the Day (Barclay James Harvest and other short stories - 1971)
I will conclude this post by adding two songs from my list for you to listen to.So here's the beautiful 'What's on your mind?' by the Norwegian band Madrugada, and the magnificent 'The Poet & After the day' by Barclay James Harvest.
Enjoy the music, and thank you for visiting! :-)

Friday, December 5, 2014

A few days ago as I was watching videos on YT, I found this excellent documentary about the big rock bands of the '70's, and how they became so famous that they were able to fill huge stadiums with thousands of people.
It contains interviews and live footage from some of the greatest names in rock music, such as: Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Queen, Bruce Springsteen etc. And although some really great bands are missing, (Deep Purple for example), it is a pleasant documentary to watch, and that's why I decided to post it here.
It has a running time of almost an hour, and I strongly recommend it.
I hope you will find it enjoyable and interesting.
Enjoy! :)

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About Me

I was born in Athens Greece, and still live there with my wife and my son..
I was DJ in many rock bars and medium size clubs for many years,
therefore music is a very important part of my life. Im a motorcycles
fan, and enjoy travel a lot with my motorcycle. Lately me & my wife we are hosting an internet radio show, and I'm having a Blog on the side.Well, that's all for now... :)